Archive for the ‘competition’Category

What it really means to be a new grad

Law_school_bubble_infographic

There isn’t much about this infographic we didn’t know. After all, law school is becoming more expensive and riskier all the time. But as long as the number of applicants to law school continues to increase, young people continue to be gullible, school is easier to handle than real-life, and there is money to be made, law schools will continue to mass-produce graduates.

Ironically, lawyers are blame for this crater in the market. But which lawyers really brought on problem? I published my answer here in connection with the ABA’s Legal Rebels project. Enough said. You can make up your own minds, but I think I made my case.

Posted via email from practice (redux)

19

09 2011


by practicehacker
posted in ABA Jounral, analytics, Article, Blogging, business, Career and Job, careers, community, competition, current-events, employment, graph, infographic, law, law office, legal marketplace, LegalZoom, practice, practice management, research, school, startup, the business of law, tips, work
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Open Plea to Legal Marketers … little help?

Me Learning to be Humble

Asking for Help ... Hat in Hand

Being the Practicehacker doesn’t mean I know everything. Take law firm marketing for instance.  
In real life I run a 3-lawyer suburban Chicago practice engaged in what I call “Small Business” law; i.e. we do pretty much everything a small business or its owners need their lawyer to do, including:
  • Business start-ups, incorporation, organization
  • Contracts: drafting, review, enforcement, terms
  • Hiring and firing of employees and contractors
  • Commercial litigation, collections, and defense
  • Real estate transaction, liens and construction
  • Business, stock and asset, sale and purchase
  • Divorce and estate planning for entrepreneurs
  • Bankruptcy, reorganization, crisis management
I can’t think of any aspect of practice organization,management, or marketing that I couldn’t improve. In fact, I am absolutely certain that I must learn to do a lot of things better. Of course, if I had to single out one thing for attention at the moment, it would have to be our law firm marketing.
Full disclosure: I’ve never been satisfied with my firm’s online or social media presence. I mean, my name is out there, but the picture that emerges of my firm seems fragmented and weak. Then again, my off-line presence is no better. I’ve prepared and delivered seminars, given talks both locally and nationally, and have had articles published all over. But to what end?
The worst part of the problem is that it feels like my office is being severely underutilized. After a harrowing couple of years in this see-saw economy, I finally have a stable team of trained lawyers and staff, with more becoming available all the time. But if what we have to offer does not reach the right Clients, it’s wasted. That’s the hardest part of the problem: matching the right skills with the right Clients and keeping the process going.
There is one final caveat: I need new marketing initiatives to have a measurable ROI so we can decide whether to stay with it, pivot, or abandon it and start over.  If anyone thinks they can take a crack at evaluating our situation, or knows someone else who can, please get in touch or leave that information in the comments to this post.  
Thanks to everyone who thinks they can help.

17

09 2011


by practicehacker
posted in bankruptcy, Blogging, business, Career and Job, competition, current-events, employment, facebook, Google, law office, Marketing, media, new media, old media, practice, practice management, referrals, social media, social media tools, the business of law, tips, twitter, Video, website, websites, Wisdom of Crowds, work, youtube
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What do you call 100 unemployed lawyers?

Sea_turtle_hatchlings_try_to_m

A good start! But seriously: according to this piece in the Wall Street Journal new law grads continue to enter the workforce faster than Starbucks can hire them. To quote the article:

According to jobs site SimplyHired.com… the hardest-to-place industry [is the] the legal field. Unemployed lawyers now find themselves in the country’s most cutthroat race for a job, with less than one opening for every 100 working attorneys.

But what makes us so hard to employ? Maybe the answer can be found in the 50 (and counting) comments to the ABA Journal’s anemic coverage of the topic, which is all of a paragraph long and is no more than a rehash of the original mention in Above the Law. Or maybe the answer is written into the Economist’s riotously off-target piece Not Enough Lawyers, which posits that we have uh, too few lawyers. But after all is said and done the truth is that lawyers are hard to employ for the same reasons we’ve known about for a good 20 years:

  • Law school costs too much and does not teach practical skills
  • Grads need to make a lot right away to pay their school loans
  • Big Law only hires a faction of grads; the rest are on their own

For the great mass of new lawyers in the market and those displaced due to the systemic shakeup in the law, the odds are lower than newly hatched turtles trying to make it out to sea. And it just breaks my heart to see that happen to such a nice bunch of baby turtles.

11

09 2011


by practicehacker
posted in Blogging, business, Career and Job, community, competition, current-events, employment, law, legal marketplace, media, outside counsel, outsourcing, practice, practice management, research, the business of law, tips, work
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Top 10 Reasons Clients are Like Hot Girlfriends

Are Clients like Hot Girlfriends?

 

10. They’re only attracted to you when you play hard to get

9. They drop you the second something better comes along

8. They care more about looks than substance or character

7. They only want lawyers that claim to be experienced

6. They tell their friends when they aren’t satisfied

5. They won’t tell anyone when they are satisfied

4. They constantly play games with your emotions

3. They’re just in it for the money

2. They take more than they give

And the #1 reason that Clients are like hot girlfriends is:

1. Can’t live with ‘em, can’t live without ‘em!

With apologies and respect to the Humbled MBA, who did it first.

Disclaimer: I’m married to a hot woman who is nothing like this. Having said that …

Posted via email from practice (redux)

11

07 2011


by practicehacker
posted in business, community, competition, conduct, cool stuff, funny, law, law office, lists, money, practice, practice management, the business of law, tips
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Oh Say Can You See …?

In between mouth-fulls of potato salad and fireworks-related trips to the ER this weekend, don’t forget to celebrate our nation’s independence. And for those of you who recently graduated from law school and earned your State Bar: you’ll be happy to know that the job market is a steaming pile. Check out the chart below of the 5 states with the biggest lawyer surplus (New York, California, New Jersey, Illinois, and Massachusetts). Check out the whole ugly story here in the NY Times.

 

01

07 2011


by practicehacker
posted in ABA, ABA Jounral, analytics, business, chart, community, competition, graph, law, lists, practice, practice management, the business of law, tips, work
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OMFG: Halo 4 … I am not worthy

I don’t care how bad ass you think you are. This is Halo 4. Man up and join the fight … or I’ll do it for you.

13

06 2011


by practicehacker
posted in competition, cool stuff, current-events, Halo, media, Microsoft, new media, technology, Video, xBox, youtube
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